SCIENCE FICTIONAL PARODY AS A POSTMODERNIST TROPE IN DOUGLAS ADAMS’S SERIAL NOVELS THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
Pamukkale University Social Sciences Institution Master of Arts Thesis Department of English Language and Literature
Çelik EKMEKÇİ
Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ali ÇELİKEL
June 2012 DENİZLİ
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I should like to express my sincerest gratitudes and thanks to my supervisor Assist. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ali ÇELİKEL for his guidance and helpful suggestions for my study and my teachers whose wisdom I have profited during my MA education; Prof. Dr. Ertuğrul İŞLER, Assist Prof. Dr. Şeyda İNCEOĞLU, Assist. Prof. Dr. Cumhur Yılmaz MADRAN, Assist. Prof. Dr. Meryem AYAN and Assist. Prof. Dr. Sonia VILLEGAS-LOPEZ. I am also grateful to my MA Classmates and Research Assistants Selime SOYUÇOK, Reyhan ÖZER TANIYAN and Baysar TANIYAN. Lastly, I want to thank my dearest family members, especially my mother, Türkan EKMEKÇİ, for her endless contribution, support and patience. iii
ABSTRACT
SCIENCE FICTIONAL PARODY AS A POSTMODERNIST TROPE IN DOUGLAS ADAMS’S SERIAL NOVELS THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
EKMEKÇİ, Çelik M.A. Thesis in English Literature Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ali ÇELİKEL
June 2012, 55 pages
Postmodern elements found in Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy is the main topic of this study. Thanks to its postmodern science fictional specialties, The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy has been considered one of the favored best-seller books ever written. Even though the humorous narrative of the novel has the potential risk of impetuous categorization as science fiction as a genre, the novel moves closer to postmodernist science fictional text domain since the structural features of postmodernism are combined with the qualities and the elements of science fiction which establish a unification and integrity.
Chapter one presents a general panorama of the elements and the categories of science fiction by providing background and historical information. Moreover, in this chapter, postmodernism is defined as a critical approach in this study and the relations between postmodern qualities and science fictional content are discussed. Chapter two contains the analysis of science fictional elements with postmodernist structural features as literary ways of expressions of parody, irony, satire and laughter. Chapter three deals with the occurrence of ideologies of cultural elements in the novel. Chapter four searches the case of an argumentation concerning the formation of alternative reality and its contribution to science fiction novel under postmodern features.
The purpose of this thesis is to analyze postmodern characteristics in Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in terms of postmodern structural features, mainly parody, irony, satire and laughter and their correspondences with science fictional qualities. Another question that will also be raised in the study is that whether postmodern qualities including ontological features, structural features (parody and so on) and the issues of alternative reality have an influence upon the way the book was shaped and handled as postmodern science fiction novel.
Key Words: Postmodernism, Parody, Ontological Features, Alternative Reality, Science Fiction, Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. iv
ÖZET
DOUGLAS ADAMS’IN BİR OTOSTOPÇUNUN GALAKSİ REHBERİ ADLI SERİ ROMANLARINDA POSTMODERNİST YÖNTEM OLARAK BİLİM- KURGUSAL PARODİ
EKMEKÇİ, Çelik Yüksek Lisans Tezi, İngiliz Dili ve Edebiyatı ABD Tez Danışmanı: Yrd. Doç. Dr. Mehmet Ali ÇELİKEL
Haziran 2012, 55 sayfa
Bu çalışmanın ana konusu Douglas Adams’ın Bir Otostopçunun Galaksi Rehberi romanında bulunan postmodern öğelerdir. Bir Otostopçunun Galaksi Rehberi, postmodern bilim kurgu eseri olma özelliği sayesinde, beğenilen, en çok satan kitaplardan birisidir. Romanın mizahi anlatısının romanı tür bakımından bilim kurgu olarak sınıflandırma riski taşımasına rağmen, postmodernizm’in yapısal özelliklerinin, bütünlüğü ve birleşimi oluşturan bilim kurgu unsurları ve özellikleri ile birleştirdiği için adı geçen roman postmodern alana daha çok yakınlaşır.
Birinci bölüm, bilim kurgu unsurları ve çeşitleri hakkında arka plan bilgisi ve tarihsel bilgi vererek genel bir açıklama sunmaktadır. Üstelik, bu bölümde postmodernizm bu çalışmadaki temel eleştirel yaklaşım olarak tanımlanıp, bilim kurgu içeriği ile postmodern özelliklerin ilişkisi tartışılmaktadır. İkinci bölüm, postmodernizmin parodi, ironi, hiciv ve güldürü unsuru olan edebi anlatım yolları olarak yapısal özellikleri ile bilim kurgu unsurlarının analizini içerir. Üçüncü bölüm romandaki kültürel unsur ideolojilerinin ortaya çıkışını ele alır. Dördüncü bölüm alternatif gerçeklik kavramının oluşumu savını ve bu alternatif gerçekliğin postmodern özellikler altındaki bilim kurgu romana katkısını araştırır.
Bu çalışmanın amacı, postmodern yapısal özellikleri olan başta parodi, ironi, hiciv ve güldürü unsurunu ve bu öğelerin bilim kurgu özelliklerine olan ilişkileri bakımından, Douglas Adams’ın Bir Otostopçunun Galaksi Rehberi adlı romanındaki postmodern öğelerin incelenmesidir. Bu çalışmada ileri sürülecek diğer bir soru da varlıksal özellikleri, yapısal özellikleri ve alternatif gerçeklik gibi postmodern özelliklerin romanın postmodern bilim kurgu olarak ele alınmasının şekillenmesinde bir etkisi olup olmadığıdır.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Postmodernizm, Parodi, Varoluşsal Postmodern Özellikler, Alternatif Gerçeklik, Bilim Kurgu, Douglas Adams, Bir Otostopçunun Galaksi Rehberi. v
TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM...... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...... ii ABSTRACT...... iii ÖZET...... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS...... v INTRODUCTION...... 1
CHAPTER ONE 5 FROM SCIENCE FICTION TO POSTMODERNISM
CHAPTER TWO 22 THE ANALYSIS OF ADAMS’ THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY AS A SCIENCE FICTIONAL PARODY
42 CHAPTER THREE IDEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS AND THE ARGUMENTATION PART CONCERNING ABOUT THE ALTERNATIVE REALITY IN THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
CONCLUSION...... 51 REFERENCES...... 54 C.V...... 55 1
INTRODUCTION
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction novel, owing to the categories and specialties that it contains. Moreover, it has such science fictional elements as galactic issues, spaceships, high-technology, time traveling, robots and fantastic features and the imagination power of the author as well just the way the science fiction as a literary genre requires. However in the novel, the first impression is that it has a humor. Hence, the tone is highly humorous. Throughout the novel, Douglas Adams uses parody in every item even in the expressions of worldly issues, space, aliens, spaceships and others. Therefore it is expressed that The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has ironical and satirical elements as well.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a serial novel which consists of five different novels that complete one another. It is episodic in form because there are stories within stories which seem as if they depend upon one another and each novel is the continuation of another. The names of the novels are; The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy, The Restaurant at The End of the Universe, Life, The Universe and Everything, So Long and Thanks for All Fish, Young Zaphod Plays It Safe and lastly as a short story Mostly Harmless. Yet, among these series only the first book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy will be studied in this thesis.
Meanwhile, each novel has its own different plot overview. It can moreover be said that in all novels, reality and fiction are intermingled with one another in that there are many references to historical facts, special names and historical characters. Thus, in the novel it seems it has its realistic scenario. Yet, the characters are fictional and the theme is fictional too containing lots of science fictional elements. Moreover the names of the major characters in the novel seem both realistic and fictive as well. Among them, Arthur Dent is a protagonist and he has his characteristic features that are totally applicable to the characteristics of modern man in today’s condition owing to the fact that he is always worried about the future. Moreover, he is despondent, he has his no 2 hope and one of the most important things about him is that he is not happy with his life. Another major character is Ford Prefect, he is an alien but, he has been living in the world for a long time. Zaphod Beeblebrox, he is an alien too and he is totally an imaginative fantastic character in that he has two heads and one day he comes to earth and meets Trillian in a party, who is the other important worldly character in the novel.
Lastly, another important character throughout the novel is Marvin, a robot who hates everything since he is in a constant depression. Thus, these clarifications, including the basic content, the plot and the characters mentioned so far are all about the introductory part of the first novel, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy which is going to be explained and pointed out in this study with its relationship to postmodern literary theory.
The present study includes three main parts; theoretical part, analysis of the novel, and thematically ideological analysis as cultural elements and the argumentation part concerning about the alternative reality. In the theoretical part, some background information about SF1, its categories, elements and its historical development will be explained and scrutinized. Then as a critical approach in this thesis, postmodernism will be explicated and applied in the analysis part.
Furthermore, the content of postmodernism, its representations and techniques used in it, will be explained thanks to such postmodern critics as Ihab Hassan, Brian McHale and Linda Hutcheon. From this perspective, meanwhile, postmodern ontological features will be pointed out with their relations to SF. Here two concepts will be mentioned, these are “doubleness” and the “paradigm shift”. These two concepts will be explained in order to clarify the ontological features of postmodernism with its relation to SF as a genre. Additionally, features of postmodernism including stylistic, thematic and structural ones will be mentioned but among them primary concern will mostly be depended upon structural features because it includes such ways of expressions as parody, irony, satire, laughter and other comical elements which will be the core of the argument in shaping the purpose of this thesis.
1 Science fiction will be abbreviated as SF in this study 3
The analysis part, on the other hand, is composed of some important sections in which the novel will be analyzed in terms of literary ways of expressions of postmodernism and their adaptation to SF as a genre. These sections and their main topics, for the analysis of the novel, will be studied in linear order as follows: science fictional elements, parody, irony, satire and laughter.
In the first section, SF elements from robots to technological advancements and further from spaceships to time traveling will be studied. Second and third section will be intermingled with one another because in parody there is an inclusion of irony and its branches, because all in ironic circumstances there are incongruous principles and understanding. Thus in these sections the terminological information about parody and irony will be provided. Moreover, the function of parody and irony will be studied in SF context. Throughout the analysis in these sections, the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams’s humorous manner of telling will be observed thanks to the quotations taken from the novel.
Furthermore, in the section of irony, two types, especially the “situational irony” and “verbal irony”, are going to be studied within the examples from the novel. In the last two sections, satire and laughter will again be pointed out mutually within the context of one another. Thus here, Bakhtinian terminologies (carnivalism, orchestration polyphony) will be used in order to explain laughter and satiric elements through the examples from literary texts. Thus, these postmodern ways of expressions will be studied and explicated in this thesis with the quotations taken from Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and furthermore these postmodern qualities will be adapted to SF specialties from literary aspects.
Additionally, in the third part, the thematic and ideological analysis, some cultural elements and their ideologies of “authenticity”, “alienation” and “otherness” will be clarified within SF postmodern qualities whose contents will be united with one another through the quotations taken from the novel. In the first section, alienation will be handled within the principles of Theodor Adorno’s The Jargon of Authenticity. 4
Here, the prominent aspect will be focused upon the concept of authentic self. Then, in the second and third sections, the ideology of otherness and the ideology of alienation are going to be grasped together in one to one correspondence with the quotations taken from postmodern SF text, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Lastly, as a continuation, in the argumentation part, the concept of an alternative reality will be handled and focused and there will be a crucial scrutiny as to whether these examples from Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with their theoretical explanations constitute an alternative reality or not. Moreover, the primary principles will be based upon whether or not these alternative realities have their contributions to Adams’s novel. Therefore as an argumentation, these specialties will be searched and studied. 5
CHAPTER ONE
FROM SCIENCE FICTION TO POSTMODERNISM
In this study, Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has been scrutinized in terms of science fictional features. The critical theory to analyze the text is postmodern criticism, through which this study has examined the novel and so its literary criteria have been illuminated. Firstly, it is apt to start with the definition and the content of the term, science fiction and its categories. As Adam Roberts defines it in his book, Science Fiction:
[…] [s]cience fiction is a term in which it is as a genre or division of literature distinguishes its fictional worlds to one degree or another form the world in which we actually live: a fiction of the imagination rather than observed reality, a fantastic literature […] (1).
Furthermore, Roberts quotes from Darko Suvin, to explain the term, science fiction in his book. According to Suvin, science fiction is “[…] a literary genre whose necessary and sufficient conditions are the presence and interaction of estrangement and cognition, and whose main formal device is an imaginative framework alternative to the author’s empirical environment […]” (7).
Science fiction as a term clearly combines science and fiction. In other words, it combines intellect with intuition. It means that, on the one hand, there is a power of reason and on the other hand, there is a power of imagination intermingled with one another. Thus, both of them complete one another and science fiction occurs. Furthermore, according to M. H. Abrams, the definition of science fiction is explained as follows: 6
[…] [t]his term encompasses novels and short stories that represent an imagined reality that is radically different in its narrative and functioning from the world of our ordinary experience. Often the setting is another planet or this world projected into the future or an imagined parallel universe […]. The term science fiction is applied to those narratives in which an explicit attempt is made to render plausible the fictional world by reference to known or imagined scientific principles or to a projected advance in technology or to a drastic change in the organization of society […] (323).
As it is observed, he points out science fiction and its different reality as being far from the daily-ordinary experience when it is compared to the real circumstance in this universe, because in such stories or narrations, this term clarifies an imagined, alternative reality, in which the technological developments are emphasized in order to intensify the atmosphere of this fictional world so that scientific principles are able to be reached and understood. Here the same issue is pointed out in an essay called Douglas Adams’s “Hitchhiker” Novels as Mock Science Fiction, by Carl R. Kropf in that “[…] SF may be defined in terms of the reader’s response, the satisfaction he or she derives from seeing how future societies respond to the way science and technology have evolved in the future […]” (63). By depending upon all these things, however, it is crucial to mention that all the imagined universes observed in science fiction texts do not necessarily have to be handled as an imaginative fiction, because it is also possible to observe such imaginative fictions in other literary genres as myths, fairytales and others as well but it is in science fiction that such technological developments elicit the attention only in this genre. Regarding this issue Roberts states that
[…] Whilst SF is imaginative fiction, it does not follow that all imaginative fiction can be usefully categorized as SF. Stories in which the protagonists travel from Earth to colonies on Mars by rocket ship are usually taken to be science fiction because no such colonies and no such available mode of transport, are available to us today. But fairytales, surreal fictions or magic realism all involve substantive differences between the world the readership actually lives in and they are not categorized as science fiction […] (3). 7
Additionally, when it comes to the categories of SF, it has been mentioned that these categories are widespread and versatile in all SF texts in that SF based narrations have their own specialties and have their own subjects, themes, trappings or props but all of them are able to be considered as the main categories of SF. Roberts classifies these as:
1- Spaceships, interplanetary or interstellar travel; 2- Aliens and the encounter with aliens; 3- Mechanical robots, genetic engineering, biological robots (androids); 4- Computers, advanced technology, virtual reality; 5- Time travel; 6- Alternative history; 7- Futuristic utopias and dystopias […] (15).
Depending upon these categories, in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, almost all these SF features have been observed. It is not only known as an SF novel, but also it tells about the adventures of space travelers from different galaxies. Thereby, in this novel, there are high-technologies, spaceships, weird aliens, advanced computer technologies, the issue of time traveling and alternative space histories, alternative planets and even alternative worlds. As a result, if these perspectives are scrutinized, it is said that The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is an SF novel because it has nearly all characteristics that SF as a genre requires.
On the one hand, the issue, for the origin of the history of science fiction has been discussed and thus it creates different ideas. By depending upon this situation, some critics dictate that it goes back to the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne but on the other hand, some assert that it goes back to epics and they point out that it has its ties with fantastic literature as well. Thus, for this issue Roberts explains that
[…] The identification of the origin for science fiction is as fiercely contested a business as defining the form. Different critics have their own favorite jumping-off points: some go back no further than a hundred years, to H G Wells and Jules Verne, giving SF as a genre a youthfulness to fit its supposedly juvenile, forwards-fixated profile. […]. Others insist on searching out “fantastic” or “science fictional” elements in literature as ancient as literature is itself. There are journeys to the moon or heroic protagonists seeking out new worlds and strange new civilizations in the oldest epics of human culture, from the 8
ancient Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh (written perhaps in 2000 BC) onwards. […] this presents us with two broad approaches focuses to the question of origins and the difference between these two approaches focuses the different ways of understanding the nature of SF […] (47).
Moreover, it has been observed that most SF critics accept that one of the earliest SF texts is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein written in 1818. On the contrary, some critics argue that the origin of SF dates back to English writer, Thomas More’s Utopia in 16th century. As Roberts states:
[…] Another text often cited as a starting place for SF is more promising in this sense. Thomas More wrote his Utopia in Latin in 1516, and it was translated into English in 1551. It describes an ideal society in which everybody coexists harmoniously, located on a fictional crescent-shaped island. The extent to which More was imaginatively creating a new type of society is also the extent to which this work which is so thoroughly rational in its Renaissance aims as to include nothing fantastic or futuristic whatsoever, can be called proto- SF […] (53).
According to Roberts, the history of SF starts from the studies of “Jules Verne and H G Wells”, as the first categorizations so he depicts that
[…] [i]mportant through Shelley’s novel has been in the development of SF it is not until the end of the nineteenth century, and the work of Verne and Wells that we start to see the actual growth of SF as a meaningful category in its own right which is to say as something more than the occasional single novel. And its through Wells rather than Verne that fiction centrally concerned with the encounter with difference is most thoroughly developed […] (59).
Then, Roberts goes on classifying “Pulp Science Fiction” as the second category in these historical proceedings. He clarifies this issue as “a connection with the cheap magazine format known as Pulp” (67). According to Roberts “the first Pulp to specialize in what we might think of as SF was Thrill Book […]” (67). 9
Moreover, it is observed that the appearance of SF and its conditions take place through education, through mixing of different genres that help the birth of SF and lastly through the development of technical and scientific fields. Thus, all of these advancements contribute to SF to take its place in literary area. Therefore, in order to explain this historical development which shapes the conditions of SF, Roger Luckhurst explains each item in his Science Fiction below:
[…] [i]t is relatively late in the nineteenth century, then, that the conditions converge to produce the space for what will become SF. These conditions are: 1) the extension of literacy and primary education to the majority of the population of England and America, including the working classes; 2) the displacement of the older forms of mass literature, “the penny dreadful” and “the dime novel”, with new cheap magazine formats that force formal innovation and drive the invention of modern genre categories like detective or spy fiction as well as SF; 3) the arrival of scientific and technical institutions that provide a training for a lower-middle class generation as scientific workers, teachers and engineers and that comes to confront traditional loci of cultural authority; and in a clearly related way, 4) the context of a culture being visibly transformed by technological and scientific innovations that really for the first time, begin to saturate the everyday life experience of nearly all with Mechanism […] (16- 17).
Then, Roberts explains the third category called “The Golden Age”, which covers the period of 1940s and 1950s in America and then in this period it is stated that “Science Fiction” as a genre starts to develop. Then “New Wave” appears as the fourth category, this period is considered as the peak of SF because in Hollywood film sector, Star Wars series exist and attract millions of people and convert their attentions to the debts of SF. As a result, the categorizations of the history of SF mentioned by Roberts are summarized above in chronological order. Hence, after explaining SF and its historical continuum, as a critical approach, postmodernism, has been used and analyzed in this thesis as the core of the argument and through which its relations as a theory have been discussed as the main point and criteria. 10
Firstly, it has been started with the explanation of critical approach. For this circumstance Peter Barry states that “[…] Postmodernist critics foreground fiction which might be said to exemplify the notion of the ‘disappearance of the real’, in which shifting postmodern identities are seen […]” (87). This principle has further been analyzed as the main point in this thesis because it is the absence of reality against which, postmodernism, as a critical theory, reacts.
As a result, in this thesis these postmodern identities have been explained in one to one correspondence with its relations to Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in terms of such structural postmodernist features as parody, irony, satire and others in a detailed way. About the definition of postmodern artist and his style here, Linda Hutcheon defines this situation in her Poetics of Postmodernism that “[…] A postmodern artist or writer is in the position of a philosopher: the text he writes, the work he produces are not in principle governed by pre-established rules […]” (15). In postmodernism, established rules are challenged and they are aimed to be turned upside down. This situation is the base fact of postmodern art and theory.
The same point is stressed by Hutcheon in that “[…] [t]he art of postmodern itself suggests a somewhat less sure sense of the inherently revolutionary value of self- reflexivity. The interpretation given to its modes of distancing and critique just might depend on what is being deconstructed and analyzed […]” (183). Additionally, in this situation the postmodern term, deconstruction is accentuated and Hutcheon explains this through Derrida’s definition of deconstruction as “being alert to the implication, to the historical sedimentation of the language which we use […]” (100). If it is scrutinized from this perspective, it is observed that postmodernism aims to change pre-established truths and its questions in order to complete this mission. Its primary target is to deconstruct earlier questions to grasp the truth. By doing so, postmodernism as a critical theory, aims to challenge the standards of reality and its standard outcomes. In order to clarify this situation Hutcheon expresses that
[…] [p]ostmodernism challenges precisely this idea of “verifiable standards of truth”, by asking such questions as: verifiable by whom? By whose standards? What is meant by “truth”? Why do we want standards? To what ends are they to be put? […] (210). 11
As far as the above quotation is concerned, postmodernism tries hard to shape its own area in which it defines its own truth. Yet, its method to achieve its purpose is not solely to damage the former reality which is thought to be the absolute one but, its pure aim is to question this reality and adapt this situation into today’s conditions so that everyone makes use of it. In other words postmodernism breaks the chains of reality which is intermingled with one another through strict norms. By breaking this pre- established rules and turning them up side down, postmodernism is able to explain the process of its existence. On the other hand, about the same circumstance, Hutcheon points out this procedure in her Politics of Postmodernism as follows:
[…] The postmodern as I have been defining it, is not a degeneration into ‘hyper-reality’ but a questioning of what reality can mean and how we can come to know it. It is not that representation dominates or effaces the referent, but rather that it now self-consciously acknowledges its existence as representation- that is, as interpreting its referent, not as offering direct and immediate access to it […] (34).
Here it has been understood that the technique of postmodernism deals with this process. While doing so, postmodernism uses the representations of the past so that it gets them converted into present and completes its procedure in making them clear with the reality and its truths. Hutcheon defines such representations and categorizes them as “Like every great word, ‘representation/s’ is a stew. A scrambled menu, it serves up several meanings at once. For a representation can be an image-visual or aural… A representation can also be a narrative, a sequence of images and ideas […]” (31).
In order to shape these representations and use them in accordance with the new adaptations of postmodernism, they are put into processes which are firstly divided into sections as present and past representations. Hence, past representations are recycled and transformed into present ones whose contents are used by postmodernism itself. In order to achieve this procedure, postmodernism uses its momentous apparatuses, which are parody and irony. As Hutcheon asserted:
[…] Postmodernism reveals a desire to understand present culture as the product of previous representations. The representation of history becomes the history of representation. What this means is that postmodern art acknowledges and 12
accepts the challenge of tradition: the history of representation cannot be escaped but it can be both exploited and commented on critically through irony and parody […] (58).
Additionally, Hutcheon points out this situation in order to clarify the use of parody and irony in these relations between present and past representations which are explained above. She makes it clear that
[…] Postmodern parody does not disregard the context of the past representations it cites, but uses irony to acknowledge the fact that we are inevitably separated from that past today- by time and by the subsequent history of those representations. There is continuum, but there is also ironic difference, difference induced by that very history […] (94).
From this point, it is necessary to give terminological information about irony and parody in terms of the use of these ways of postmodern literary expressions including laughter and comic elements. Firstly, according to Abrams:
A parody [is] a serious manner and characteristic features of a particular literary work, or the distinctive style of a particular author, or the typical stylistic and other features of a serious literary genre, and deflates the original by applying the imitation to a lowly or comically inappropriate subject […] (36).
Thus, as it is pointed out above, in parody, a situation which is considered a serious one is touched upon by the author whether intentionally or not, thanks to a particular literary work in various genres. In parody, there are three important features which shape its characteristics; the first one is, as a literary expression and allusion, the second one is the procession of reference and the last one is the issue of implication. The main purpose here is that parody is used to make fun of the original circumstance, which it is attributed to, through comic elements. Regarding this issue, Hutcheon states that “[…] Parody is a perfect postmodern form, in some senses, for it paradoxically both incorporates and challenges that which it parodies. It also forces a reconsideration of the ideas of origin or originality […]” (11). 13
This postmodern parody has its crucial function and in order to shape its existence, postmodern parody not only deconstructs the critical points but also adjusts the relations between representations which are included in all postmodern forms of parody. Hutcheon stresses upon the same thing that “[…] [p]ostmodern parody is both deconstructively critical and constructively creative, paradoxically making us aware of both the limits and the powers of representation- in any medium […]” (98). On the other hand, Hutcheon points out the use of irony in literary texts as follows:
[…] [i]rony makes the intertextual references into something more than simply academic play or some infinite regress into textuality: what is called to our attention is the entire representational process- in a wide range of forms and modes of production – and the impossibility of finding any totalizing model to resolve the resulting postmodern contradictions […] (95).
Therefore, it is implied that in irony there is a discrepancy between reality and face value. Therefore, in this process of representation, irony seems as if it creates a kind of contradiction in terms of postmodern literary expressions. Abrams explains this circumstance, “[i]n most of the modern critical uses of the term “irony”, there remains the root sense of dissembling, or of hiding what is actually the case; not, however, in order to deceive, but to achieve special rhetorical or artistic effects […]” (165). For the same issue, as Ihab Hassan asserted in his The Postmodern Turn: Essays in Postmodern Theory and Culture, “[i]rony becomes radical, self-consuming play, entropy of meaning. […]” (40-41). Consequently, these artistic literary expressions such as parody and irony have their postmodern tendencies. In order to define this situation, Hutcheon explicates that “[p]arody – often called ironic quotation, pastiche, appropriation or intertextuality – is usually considered central to postmodernism, both by its detractions and its defenders […]” (93). Moreover, through irony, the issue of clarification of truth is accomplished as Hassan points out, “[…] [i]rony aspires to clarity, the clarity of demystification, the pure light of absence […]. Irony, expresses the ineluctable recreations of mind in search of a truth […]” (170).
As a result, in parody and irony there are literary purposes which shape the skeleton of postmodern art and its identity in that parody and irony have their literary principles and all these principles have their utmost special meanings and functions 14 which are set in thoroughly purposeful not coincidental. Thus, they are able to perform their postmodern principles in accordance with the postmodern content and with the postmodern form. For about the same case Hutcheon expresses that
[…] [t]here is absolutely nothing random or “without principle” in the parodic recall […]. To include irony and play is never necessarily exclude seriousness and purpose in postmodern art. To misunderstand this is to misunderstand the nature of much contemporary aesthetic production- even if it does make it for neater theorizing […] (27).
Moreover, another literary expression used in literary texts is laughter. In laughter, there are crucial elements arising from the content. These are the emergent of paradoxical statements, incongruous events, unexpected features and the occurrence of imbalance. The historical importance of laughter is so important that it has a universal tendency which is even included in Bakhtinian terms, “carnivalesque”, and it is defined and explained in a detailed way according to Mikhail Bakhtin’s analysis of carnivalism in his Rabelais and His World. Before going into details, first of all it is important to clarify laughter’s historical significance. According to Bakhtin:
[…] [l]aughter was as universal as seriousness; it was directed at the whole world, at history, at all societies, at ideology. It was the world’s second truth extended to everything and from which nothing is taken away. It was, as it were, the festive aspect of the whole world in all its elements, the second revelation of the world in play and laughter […] (84).
For the historical development of laughter in literary genres and also for its origin, Bakhtin furthermore explains that “[…] [t]rue ambivalent and universal laughter does not deny seriousness but purifies and completes it […]. It restores this ambivalent wholeness. Such is the function of laughter in the historical development of culture and literature […]” (122-123). By depending upon this situation, one of the most important elements of laughter is the image of grotesque and at the same time it is observed that the image of grotesque has its close relation to satire in that grotesque image contains satirical dimension which takes place through exaggeration. The same circumstance is analyzed by Bakhtin, “[…] [t]he exaggeration of the inappropriate to incredible and monstrous dimensions is the basic nature of the grotesque. Therefore the grotesque is 15 always satire. Where there is no satirical orientation there is no grotesque […]” (306). Here, as it is stressed by Bakhtin, the inclusion of satire in grotesque image is crucially emphasized, but it is also mentioned that there will be no more grotesque, in the absence of satire. Abrams defines this term and explains that
[s]atire can be described as the literary art of diminishing or derogating a subject by making it ridiculous an evoking toward it attitudes of amusement, contempt, scorn or indignation. It differs from the comic in that comedy evokes laughter mainly as an end itself, while satire derides; that is, it uses laughter as a weapon […] (320).
Having scrutinized such postmodern literary expressions above, the issue and the jargon of authenticity and its ideology have hereby been stressed upon with its relation to postmodernism as a critical theory. According to Adorno, “authenticity and inauthenticity have as their criterion the decision in which the individual subject chooses itself as its own possession […]” (94). As far as it is concerned, in authenticity self-conscious individual is emphasized and the concept of self-identity and individuality has an enormous attribution to shape this authentic self. Regarding this situation here, Adorno points out that “[…] [t]he alternative of authenticity and inauthenticity directs itself according to whether someone decides for himself or not. It takes its directive, beyond real states of affairs, from the highly formal sense of belonging to oneself […]” (94).
Hence, Adorno analyzes this authenticity as something higher, he grasps the authentic self as superior quality and he clarifies the circumstance by indicating that pure and core authenticity takes place through the divergence of its immortal soul. Therefore, Adorno defines death as the main authentic notion. This principle is explained below as regards:
[…] [t]he jargon of authenticity, which sells self-identity as something higher, projects the exchange formula onto that which imagines that it is not exchangeable ; for as a biological individual each man resembles himself. That is what is left after the removal of soul and immortality from the immortal soul […] (61). 16
Then, Adorno goes on explaining the notion of death as an authentic form by combining it with the thoughts of Heidegger and his handling of death as an existentialist ideology in that “[t]he jargon of authenticity is ideology as language, without any consideration of specific content. It asserts meaning with the gesture of that dignity by which Heidegger would like to dress up death […]” (132).
According to Adorno, this principle of understanding evaluates authenticity as the dignity of the realm of truth and he moreover deals with the pure authenticity as an absolute fact by attributing its qualities to the existence of death. He explains that
[…] [d]eath is the essence of the realm of mortality. This occurs in opposition to the immediate, which is characterized by the fact that is there. Death thus becomes something that is artificially beyond the existent. Saved from the They it becomes the authentic. Authentic is death […] (125).
From this point, all postmodern literary principles from parody to authenticity analyzed and explained so far, are prominent facts. Thereby, all has their own capabilities and procedures in the clarification of the critical theory and its relation to the genre, studied in this thesis. Firstly, it is extremely crucial again to express the tie between SF and postmodernism as the critical theory, whose relations are introduced and each has been given in accordance with brief introduction and explanation in prologue above. Now, this connection between SF and postmodernism has been concretized with detailed explications by one to one correspondence with the theoretical principles concerning both SF and postmodernism. As Carl Freedman stresses in his Critical Theory and Science Fiction:
[i]n examining the affinity between critical theory and science fiction, there is tactical as well as methodological economy beginning with the specifically stylistic dimensions of science fiction. Style is widely taken to be a privileged category in the analysis of any literary kind, a kind of touchstone of the literary itself […] (30).
Therefore, the above quotation stresses the prominence of literary structures of SF and its connection with the critical theory. These structures in SF are explained and emphasized above as parody, irony, satire and so on. By depending upon this situation in order to mention the occurrence of stylistic and structural resemblances in critical 17 theory and their functions in building the bridge between each other, Freedman explicates that “[t]hrough style, the critical theory constantly shows that things are not what they seem to be and that things need not eternally be as they are. […]” (8).
Furthermore, in SF, through its close relation to postmodernism, another ideological circumstance takes place within the handling of representations. This ideological circumstance has been the prominent fact of otherness and its prevailing ideology; alienation. By depending upon this situation, Abrams explains that
[i]t is the Brechtian term in that it avoids the negative connotations of jadedness, incapacity to feel and social apathy that the word “alienation” has acquired in English […]. It is used to make familiar aspects of the present social reality seem strange, so as to prevent the emotional identification or the involvement of the reader or audience with the characters and their actions in a literary work or play […] (6).
Therefore, here the issue of recurrent theme of “otherness” and its connotation has been stressed within the ideology of alienation. In SF texts, this representation of otherness has been scrutinized as the point of discrepancy and difference in that it takes this crucial concept as the core of the argument in its content and in its clarification within the inclusion of alienation. As Roberts asserts about the same issue, “[…] [t]he problematic of this encounter with difference, the difference of representing the Other without losing touch with the familiar, becomes exactly the point of the some of the most celebrated SF texts […]” (26). This problematic case between the representations of difference has shaped the thematic point in SF as in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as well.
Thus, SF texts have aimed to grasp this ideology of otherness in its plot overview in order to clarify the point in that “SF, by focusing its representations of the world not through reproduction of that world but instead by figuratively symbolising it, is able to foreground precisely the ideological constructions of Otherness” (Roberts, 2000: 30). However, in traditional form, as it is emphasized in the definition of alienation, otherness in SF texts has frequently been handled as a negative concept in literary ideology. Because it contains incongruous understanding which is contrary to the dictations and the principles of traditional ideology and its absolute dictum. Here, 18 for this issue, Roberts points out that “[o]therness is often demonised, / SF can pierce the constraints of this ideology by circumventing the conventions of traditional fiction […]” (30). Here, the critical point of SF texts has been accentuated in that it includes its own features that form the frame of SF and it performs its duty according to its own principles rather than according to traditional concepts, that is why it has been highlighted as “The science-fiction novel does contain social criticism” (Luckhurst, 2005: 114).
Additionally, in SF texts, the use of doubleness and the concept of paradigm shift are likely to occur especially within the postmodern theory for its ontological facts. In the concept of doubleness, there are many postmodern identities which are totally variable and versatile. However, these double-postmodern identities in SF have their many centres which shape the contradictions in themselves in order to represent SF features in the text. As Hutcheon explains, “[t]here is contradiction but no dialectic in postmodernism. And it is essential that the doubleness be maintained, not resolved. […]” (209). The paradigm shift, on the other hand, is the change of learned concepts through which different double identities are shifted intentionally in postmodern art and theory. According to Abrams its literary-historical definition and purpose is:
A widely used distinction, developed by Roman Jakobson, is that between the rules governing “paradigmatic relations”, the vertical relations between any single word in a sentence and other words that are phonologically, syntactically or semantically similar and which can be substituted for it, and “syntagmatic relations”, the horizontal relations which determine the possibilities of putting words in a sequence so as to make a well-formed syntactic unit […] (176).
Therefore, through the concept of paradigm shift and the concept of doubleness in postmodern texts, the purposeful ontological construction has been built where the representations and their postmodern identities shaping the content are created. As Hutcheon explains, “[…] [p]ostmodernist art and theory have self-consciously acknowledged their ideological positioning in the world and they have been incited to do so… […]” (179). 19
After analyzing the literary components of SF texts with their related postmodern features above, here, in this section, the critical points of postmodernism as a critical approach and science fiction as a literary genre have been scrutinized and explicated in terms of ontological and common features. Brian McHale states this situation in his Postmodernist Fiction that “[s]cience fiction, like postmodernist fiction, is governed by the ontological dominant […]” (59). Here, the term ontology aims to express the close relationship between existence and its deeds. Postmodernism uses the particular unit of existence and takes it as its basic concern. For the same issue it is pointed out that
[i]f postmodernist poetics foregrounds ontological issues of text and world, it can only do so by exploiting general ontological characteristics shared by all literary texts and fictional worlds and it is only against the background of general theories of literary ontology that specific postmodernist practices can be identified and understood […] (McHale, 1991: 27).
In order to analyze an SF text, postmodernism uses these ontological issues within the content of literary genre of SF. Therefore, the common characteristics of SF, observed throughout this specific genre, are adapted into the ontological purposes independently. The following quotation explains this circumstance as follows:
[…] [i]nvasions from outer space, visits to other planets, Utopian or dystopian futures, time-travel, parallel or lost worlds- all of these science-fiction topoi serve the purposes of an ontological poetics, but one that has developed almost entirely independently of postmodernism’s ontological poetics (McHale, 1991: 62).
Moreover, in postmodernism, it has been observed that the term displacement is used in order to describe SF elements in tandem with SF characteristics. Hence, postmodern writing is able to be convenient in the analysis of SF texts in terms of form and content. For this situation, McHale clarifies that “[…] [p]ostmodernist writing has preferred to adapt science fiction’s motifs of temporal displacement rather than its spatial displacements […]” (66). Therefore, one of the crucial issues that postmodernism makes use of in SF texts is “[…] [t]emporal displacement through time- travel, like its spatial analogue, interplanetary flight, has been too closely identified with science fiction as such for postmodernist writers to be able to use it with much freedom 20
[…]” (McHale, 1991: 67). This situation has been observed nearly in all SF texts as a main content and the same circumstance is observed thoroughly in Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as a main plot throughout the novel.
Consequently, in this study, these literary and theoretical principles mentioned above have been used in the analysis of the novel according to some literary features which have been applied to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to clarify the purpose of this text. Among them, there are structural, thematic and the stylistic features which take their places. However, only the first one of these features called as structural ones has been handled as a core analysis and has been used as a basic scope in this thesis. Therefore, as a critical approach, Postmodernism has been used to analyze these structural features. At the same time, postmodernist critical tools have been applied to the novel. In this section, postmodern qualities have been analyzed in tandem with the chosen quotations taken from the novel. Moreover, in the section on stylistic features, postmodern narration, its technical specialties and the use of language have been explained and, thus, these stylistic features have so been scrutinized according to the chosen citations from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
In thematic features on the other hand, the core point is about the novel and its plot construction. Here, in this section the changing of events have been clarified in accordance with the changes in form. Furthermore, the use of events have been handled and explained according to their own categories from general to specific ones. In thematic section, historical linear order of the novel, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, has also been stressed in that how these events take place in this novel have been applied for the analysis of this study. Last target point in this thematic section has been the relations between characters and the analysis of their characteristic features.
Thereby these features of stylistic and thematic ones have been shown through the quotations taken from the novel however there have no more been detailed analysis for both features because the main purpose and the prominence of facts have been focused on structural ones which include all these principles whose aims are mentioned above. 21
Hence, as the core point in this study under structural features, the ways of expressions which constitute the purpose for the analysis of the novel have been grasped in order to explain the main argument mentioned in the title “The Science Fictional Parody as a Postmodernist Trope in Douglas Adams’s Serial Novels The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. These structural features are parody, irony, satire and laughter and including some comical elements as well.
As a result, these three features including, stylistic, thematic and structural ones have been analyzed and explained and each has been explicated according to the points and according to the citations taken from variety of theorists in theory part. However, the structural features have generated the framework of this thesis so density of studies when compared to others, have mostly been focused upon the structural ones whose contents have been clarified and studied as a core of the argument in order to complete this study. 22
CHAPTER TWO
THE ANALYSIS OF ADAMS’ THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY AS A SCIENCE FICTIONAL PARODY
In this section, the primary focus has firstly been on the analysis of science fictional elements and their clarifications then, postmodern structural features such as parody, irony, satire and laughter will be studied and adapted to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy. Carl R. Kropf, in his essay, entitled Douglas Adams’s “Hitchhiker” Novels as Mock Science Fiction scrutinizes the exposition part as an introduction of the novel that
Adams’s novels begin with the apparent destruction of the Earth and everything on it except two humans and two mice. The two humans to escape are, as one might expect, a man and a woman, and, one naturally expects, the two will eventually settle on some edenic planet where we can watch the author work out yet another version of the Genesis myth (62).
Moreover Kropf analyzes Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy as mock SF novel and he even summarizes basic points which have been scrutinized thoroughly as regards:
Adams’s “Hitchhiker” series, as we have seen, has all of the trappings of conventional SF. In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979), we are led to expect all of the usual: the Earth is threatened; the hero escapes; he meets an escaped Earth woman; he is aboard a marvelously powerful ship. So far the plot summary sounds like that of any number of conventional SF novels (64) [italics added]. 23
Firstly, the technological advancements in SF text which have been introduced and emphasized in theory part have their utmost importance in the clarification of SF elements. As it is shown in this quotation, Roberts points out that
[…] [m]achines and technology are what we most associate with SF; just as we have now grown utterly accustomed to having a wide range of machines and technology surrounding us in our everyday lives. This might make it difficult for ‘the machine’ to figure alterity; but there can be little doubt that this is precisely the space occupied by the machine in the SF text […] (146).
The importance of technology and its illumination upon the content of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is the basic issue that it has even been analyzed at the beginning of the novel by Adams in the description of spaceship’s computer as follows:
[…] [t]he Sirius Cybernetics Shipboard computer which controlled and permeated every particle of the ship, switched into communication mode. […] “Hi there!” it said brightly and simultaneously spewed out a tiny ribbon of ticker tape just for the record. The ticker tape said, Hi there! […] The computer continued, “I want you to know that whatever your problem, I am here to help you solve it” […] (100-101).
This quotation describes the high-technological advancements which are highly used in SF texts. However here in Adams’s postmodern SF work, technology is deconstructed through the personification of technological apparatuses such as computers regarding comical elements and their usage throughout the novel like this. Thus, from this citation taken from Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy, parodic sense of postmodern SF content has been scrutinized.
Moreover, these technological issues including computers, spaceships, robots and variety of apparatuses whose initiations in technology have been described in a detailed-comical way in the novel through the intentional use of Adams’s SF language with their own technological names: 24
[…] [t]he Encyclopedia Galactica defines a robot as a mechanical apparatus designed to do the work of a man. The marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation defines a robot as “Your Plastic Pal Who’s Fun to Be With.” The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy defines the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as “a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes” […] (92- 93).
Here, in this quotation, the definition of robot is clarified according to electronic book of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy” in the novel itself in comical and cynical manner. Here the original understanding and principle of SF based robot is deconstructed with Adams’s parodic manner of describing.
Furthermore, in his essay, Kropf points out the relations between prominence of technological-SF elements and characters by saying that “[…] Science fiction obtains its unique fictional response by dealing with characters whose situation has been created by change, and usually scientific or technological change […]” (63). Therefore the same relations between the characters and the SF elements are analyzed similarly by Roberts:
[…] [t]he key machines of SF are spaceships and robots/computers. The spaceship is almost always humanised: it may be sentient itself […]. The spaceship is one focus for the bringing together of human and machine. Robots, more obviously, share human and machine characteristics […]. In all these cases, what the SF text does is dramatise and characterise our understanding of the alterity of machines […] (148).
Thus, here in this clarification, as it is stressed, the characteristic features of humans are attributed to one of the SF elements such as robots in that these characteristics are shared as common factors which determine the relations between humanity and machines throughout the novel and at the same time this issue has been handled by Adams via humorous way with comic mode in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy like this:
[…] “But what are you supposed to do with a manically depressed robot?” “You think you’ve got problems,” said Marvin, as if he was addressing a newly occupied coffin, “what are you supposed to do if you are a manically depressed robot? No, don’t bother to answer that, I’m fifty thousand times more 25
intelligent than you and even I don’t know the answer. It gives me a headache just trying to think down to your level […] (136).
In order to explain this circumstance in a detailed way, Roberts grasps this circumstance and uses these relations between SF elements and human characteristics in accordance with the adaptation of Adams’s novel. As Kropf mentions, “[…] Adams’s novels are far broader in scope, including all of time and space and all life-forms […]” (67). Hence Roberts uses the most important SF elements, robots and technologies and so he describes the character in the novel; Marvin, the depressed robot, as his core element and he explicates Marvin’s characteristic features which show one to one correspondence with the characteristics of humans. Thus this resemblance occurs as the basic and primary concern in his studies for Adams’s SF text. As it is further stated:
[…] [t]he robot is that place in a SF text where technological and human are almost directly blended. The robot is the dramatisation of the alterity of the machine, the paranoid sense of the inorganic come to life. That it works this way, rather than just clothing the human in mechanical dress, is indicated by a few key examples. […]. But it is Marvin, the enormously intelligent but chronically depressed android, whose metallic clanking and the hydraulic puffs and gasps accompanying his movement suggest that he is more robot than android, who remains one of the most enduring creations of the series […] (Roberts, 2000: 161-162).
Moreover, Roberts points out the characteristics of this depressed robot that “Marvin combines the attributes of the most advanced of machine intelligences with the pathological character traits of a particularly flawed human being. He has, as he repeatedly insists, ‘a brain the size of a planet’; he is so intelligent that he can read human consciousness […]” (161-162). In order to clarify this situation Roberts shows a funny dialogue between Arthur Dent and Marvin in that “[…] ‘You mean you can see into my mind?’ asks the incredulous human character, Arthur Dent. ‘And?’ ‘It amazes me’, says Marvin, gloomily, ‘how you manage to live in anything so small’ […]” (161- 162). Furthermore, the core point in the clarification of the characteristics of Marvin according to Roberts is that “[…] he is so continually depressed and miserable that it is a chore having to around him; he hates everything, including himself and he is able to literally to bore some security guards to death merely by telling them his miserable life story […]” (161-162). Lastly, Roberts favours the basic factor which is mentioned above about the robot-Marvin’s human like idiosyncrasy as follows: 26
[…] [t]he glory of Marvin’s characterisation is that he pursues the expression of his depression with machine-like rigour, so that he not only adds human characteristics to his machineness, he adds machine characteristics to his human traits. He is a potently thorough blending of machine and man […] (161-162).
However, these main elements of SF texts such as computers, robots and so on, with their utmost technologies affect the reader in a negative way. Because SF text through its materials and elements of its own controls the feelings and emotions therefore, such images as fear and horror take place among the readers due to the fact that SF causes catastrophic events. Roberts explains the same issue, “[…] Our feelings about computers have been rehearsed by every SF text that includes Artificial Intelligence; actual exploration of our solar system seems tame to us because our expectations have been raised by the thrills of the SF imagery […]” (35-36). Similarly, Adams depicts this catastrophic SF scenery in his novel with his comic tone and humorous manner of telling, hence, his way of handling is totally different from that of other SF texts because his novel is produced through his purposeful parodic and ironic intentions throughout his Hitchhiker’s series. For about the same incidence, in the novel, the earth is about to be destroyed for the construction of hyperspatial bypass by Vogons. As it is represented by Adams:
[…] “People of Earth, your attention, please,” a voice said and it as wonderful. Wonderful perfect quadraphonic sound with distortion levels so low as to make a brave man weep. “This is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council,” the voice continued. “As you will no doubt be aware, the plans for development of the outlying regions of Galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial Express route through your star system and regrettably your planet is one of those scheduled for demolition. The process will take slightly less than two of your Earth minutes. Thank you” […]. “There is no point in acting all surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display in your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for fifty of your Earth years, so you’ve had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it’s far too late to start making a fuss about it now” […] (34-35). 27
This quotation analyzes the deconstruction of the catastrophic event of the demolition of the world’s itself with funny statements in this postmodern SF text. Because in this situation, serious topoi of SF called “Invasion of World by Aliens” is clarified within the extraordinary manners including comical elements, weird speaking and notification of aliens. Therefore the serious SF content is deconstructed and turned up side down with comical parodic circumstance which is created in this postmodern SF text. For the same event Kropf in his essay depicts that “[…] Curiously, or perhaps perversely, the novels begin with a sort of conclusion, the end of all human experience, but even this monumental closure is trivialized by the fact that Earth is casually destroyed by a construction crew preparing the way for a freeway bypass in hyperspace […]” (64-65).
Jean Baudrillard further scrutinizes this catastrophic SF scenario that “[…] almost all science-fiction novels have as their theme the situation of a rational and affluent Great City threatened with destruction from without or within by some great hostile force […]” (199). Furthermore, in order to point out this catastrophic circumstance in accordance with the technological apparatuses of SF, Baudrillard analyzes the relations between human and technology as for the mutual outcome they cause nearly all in SF based texts as regards:
[…] All our current science fiction is steeped in inevitability of technology, as is the whole of everyday mythology, from the peril of the atomic catastrophe (the technological suicide of civilization) to the theme, played out in a thousand variations, of the fatal gap between technical Progress and human social morality […] (192).
On the other hand, by depending upon these similar issues, in order to point out the interstellar confrontations that take place in SF texts and their inevitable outcome the issue of disparity as a main conflict, McHale moreover states that “[…] Science fiction, by staging “close encounters” between different worlds, placing them in confrontation, foregrounds their respective structures and the disparities between them […]” (60). The same point is handled by Hassan as one of the specialties of postmodernism as a critical theory. Hence, he explicates this circumstance of planetary confrontations and the extinction of humanbeings under a general understanding in SF text as follows, “[…] Postmodernism is rather Denaturalization of the planet and the 28
End of Man. We are, I believe, inhabitants of another Time and another Space, and we no longer know what response is adequate to our reality […]” (39). Additionally for the same circumstance of confrontation, McHale once more stresses his point that “[…] [i]n the most typical (and stereotypical) science-fiction contexts, “worlds” should be understood literally as planets and “confrontation between worlds” as interplanetary travel […]” (60).
Consequently, in order to indicate the destruction and apocalyptic events that most SF texts use it as a main theme and content, McHale explains the affinity between SF future and such postmodern future that “[…] [m]ost postmodernist futures, in other words, are grim dystopias – as indeed most science-fiction worlds of the future have been in recent years. The motif of a world after the holocaust or some apocalyptic breakdown occurs […]” (67). From this perspective, postmodernism and its features have been analyzed and explicated in accordance with the quotations taken from Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Hence, there have been one to one correspondences with postmodern qualities and science fictional elements.
As mentioned in the theory part, within the postmodern theory, ontological features have their prominent influences in SF texts. Here, for this situation McHale asserts that “[…] [i]n the postmodernization of science fiction, just as postmodernism has borrowed ontological motifs from science fiction, so science fiction has in recent years begun to borrow from postmodernism […]” (68-69). Thus, it has been observed that postmodernism and science fiction have their mutual affinities with one another in terms of ontological motifs. Furthermore, about this relationship, McHale claims that
[…] Postmodernist fiction has close affinities with the genre of science-fiction and it draws upon the science fiction for motifs and topoi. It is able to draw upon science fiction in this way because science fiction like postmodernist fiction itself is governed by the ontological dominant (74).
Here, under ontological process, postmodernism adapts itself into the conditions that SF texts use so that mutual relations develop and each principle completes one another in an appropriate way. For this circumstance Hutcheon clarifies that “[…] [w]hat postmodern fiction does, however, is to reverse doubled process: it installs the 29 power, but then contests it. […]” (180). This doubling process creates a kind of humorous-ironic tendency which fulfills the relations between postmodernism and SF. She further adds that “[…] [t]he effect is to highlight or ‘highlight’ and to subvert or ‘subvert’ and the mode is therefore a ‘knowing’ and an ironic – or even ‘ironic’- one […]” (1). Hence, here in this case one of the primary concerns is the process of denaturalization of these ontological principles. As Hutcheon defines, “[…] [p]ostmodernism’s initial concern is to de-naturalize some of the dominant features of our way of life […]” (2).
Thereby, Adams uses these ontological postmodern features with SF elements with their own special SF names in his Hitchhiker’s series through his humorous- comical way of telling. He furthermore applies laughter and parody to his The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy in order to subvert the original meanings with new paradigmatic shiftings. For the same circumstance, Kropf emphasizes in his essay that “[…] like the mock epic, Adams’s mock SF novels reverse most of the paradigmatic expectations readers have learned to bring to the genre and by reversing the usual conventions of the genre, Adams also reverses its entire ideological function. […]” (61).
Additionally, McHale states the purpose of this critical approach through its ontological features with SF as genre by saying that “[…] [f]or postmodernist fiction as I have shown at length, is above all illusion-breaking art; it systematically disturbs the air of reality by foregrounding the ontological structure of texts and of fictional worlds […]” (221). Therefore, these structural features of parody, irony, satire, laughter and others have their enormous prominences in the novel in turning the known concepts and seriousness of SF elements up side down in comical manner. The quotation below, from Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, shows the same understanding:
[…] The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels. A towel, it says is about the most massively a useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a minicraft down the slow 30
heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand to hand combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal ( a mind bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you- daft as a brush, but very very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough […] (26- 27).
In this example the ontological value of a “Towel” is transformed into another level. Moreover, the new values and the new meanings are attributed to this item. Therefore in the novel this simple item, a “Towel”, is deconstructed with comical postmodern contents and purposes; from the weapon for fighting to the apparatus of signaling for notification in space-traveling and so on. Hence, here this deconstructed postmodern item, a “Towel”, is analyzed in accordance with SF elements. By depending upon this situation, Adams stresses the importance of carrying a “Towel” during the interstellar traveling of the Hitchhiker. Adams moreover adds more about the same case as follows:
[m]ore importantly a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suit etc., etc. […] (27).
For this circumstance, McHale further clarifies very urgent point by showing the relations used in SF technologies in that “[…] [m]any space-travel narratives although by no means all of them, are projected into the future, for the obvious reason that they depend upon technologies which have been extrapolated from those of the present day […]” (60). This point shows the effect of a basic item, a “Towel”, and its SF attributions which are ascribed intentionally by Adams.
On the other hand, another crucial step here, as it has frequently been mentioned in theoretical part is the process of structural bases of postmodernism such as parody, irony, laughter and their analysis in accordance with the quotations taken from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The theoretical principles and relations between SF and postmodernism’s structural features including parody, irony, satire and laughter 31 have been analyzed and explicated in theory part. Here, the primary purpose has been focused to scrutinize these relations between The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and parody. For the same purpose depicted above, Kropf in his essay studies the interaction of parody with this SF text and so he summarizes the peak of postmodern parodic circumstance with regards to total rudiments as an exposition in that
[…]. SF frequently celebrates the triumph of the human spirit, as personified by a hero of epic proportions, over seemingly impossible odds. However, Adams's unlikely hero, Arthur Dent, is a bungling British Everyman whose heroic quest is confined to the search for a drinkable cup of tea. Whereas conventional SF depicts the Earth's discovery of or return to its rightful place as first among equals in the galactic community (62).
For the literary purposes of parody under postmodern circumstances, Hutcheon claims that “[…] [w]hat such postmodern parody points to is the acknowledgement that these are the only technological updatings of those earlier trappings of realism […]” (90). Furthermore in order to explicate the core principle of postmodern parody Hutcheon further points out that “[…] [i] would want to argue that postmodernist parody is a value-problematizing, de-naturalizing form of acknowledging the history (through irony, laughter, satire and humor) of representations […]” (94). Hence, through these postmodern ways of expressions, the prominent relations between SF and the main critical approach have been managed in the following quotation by Adams with his humorous manner of telling in the novel:
[…] “Earthman, the planet you lived on was commissioned, paid for and run by mice. It was destroyed five minutes before the completion of the purpose for which it was built and we’ve got to build another one.” Only one word was registering with Arthur. “Mice?” he said. “Indeed, Earthman.” “Look sorry, are we talking about the little white furry things with cheese fixation and women standing on tables screaming in early sixties sitcoms?” […] These creatures you call mice, you see, they are not quite as they appear. They are merely the protrusion into our dimension of vastly hyperintelligent pandimensional beings. The whole business with the cheese and the squeaking is just a front. The old man paused and with a sympathetic frown continued. “They’ve been experimenting on you, I’m afraid” (163-164). 32
Adams moreover explains this parodic and comical circumstance thanks to his own expression as his own manner of telling by making use of incongruous-comic events and their deep satiric and ironic explications. Therefore, in such situations, Adams gives the priority mostly to his witty characterizations among them Arthur Dent and Slartibartfast show themselves in the following case in that
[…] Arthur thought about this for a second and then his face cleared. “Ah no,” he said, “I see the source of misunderstanding now. No, look, you see what happened was that we used to do experiments on them. They were often used in behavioral research. Pavlov and all that sort of stuff […] (163-164).
Meanwhile in conclusion of this conversation between Slartibartfast and Arthur, Slartibartfast explains this parodic situation to Arthur in humorous way as follows:
[…] [s]o what happened was that the mice would be set all sort of tests, learning to ring the bells, run round mazes and things so that the whole nature of the learning process could be examined. From our observations of their behavior we were able to learn all sorts of things about our own […] (Adams, 2005: 163-164).
In this quotation, this parodic situation, as it is defined above, occurs between the characters, Arthur and Slartibartfast during the conversation which concerns about the clarification of an issue called “The World Is Ruled By Mice”. Hence, here this citation taken from the novel, scrutinizes the parodic deconstruction of SF text. By depending upon this case, Kropf mentions in his essay that “Douglas Adams’s “Hitchhiker” novels have proven to be an extremely popular but enigmatic phenomenon among SF readers. Reviewers have uniformly appreciated the novels’ wit and their satire/parody on a broad range of subjects […]” (61). Moreover, according to Hutcheon, “[…] [w]hat postmodern parody does is to evoke what reception theorists call the horizon of expectation of the spectator, a horizon formed by recognizable conventions of genre, style or form of representation. […]” (114). In another quotation from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, parodic circumstance has further been stressed in accordance with science fictional motif: 33
[…] “Vogon Constructer Fleets. Here is what to do if you want to get a lift from a Vogon: forget it. They are one of the most unpleasant races in the Galaxy- not actually evil, but bad- tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous. They wouldn’t even lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal without orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters. “ The best way to get a drink out of a Vogon is to stick your finger down his throat, and the best way to irritate him is to feed his grandmother to the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal. “ On no account allow a Vogon to read poetry at you” […] (Adams, 2005: 52-53).
Here in this example, the alien race called Vogon is described and thus deconstructed throughout the novel which are contrary to SF definition of aliens whose contents have mostly been depended upon thrill imagery. However here, this race is defined rather highly humorous than that of the others in SF texts. Furthermore, it has been clarified that in this quotation, Adams uses his humor in order to express his deconstructed SF motifs and elements with the collaboration of parodic sentences. Additionally, Adams’s self-reflexive technique explicates his purpose and at the same time, his humorous manner of telling and using of his peculiar elevated language with his choices of comical-parodic structures express his art. Moreover, his handling of comical expressions is expressed with the elements of laughter as well. For such cases Hutcheon defines that
[…] [p]arody can be used as a self-reflexive technique that points to art as art, but also to art as inescapably bound to its aesthetic and even social past. Its ironic reprise also offers an internalized sign of a certain self-consciousness about our culture’s means of ideological legitimation […] (101).
As for such expressions, Kropf explicates Adams’s technique that “[…] in Adams’s hands none of the conventions work out in the conventional way; and as happens in the mock epic, the Hitchhiker novels consequently reverse the entire function of the genre […]” (64).
On the other hand irony, in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, has mostly been situated within the verbal ones and situational ones as two different types. Thus they are mostly observed in the form of verbal irony and situational irony throughout 34 the novel. Such examples about situational and verbal ironies are versatile and vary in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Among them, one of the most frequently observed ones is the type of verbal irony:
[…] “You know,” said Arthur, “it’s at times like this, when i’m trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I’d listened to what my mother told me when I was a young.” “Why, What did she tell you?” “I don’t know, I didn’t listen” […] (Adams, 2005: 75).
This ironic situation occurs when Arthur and Ford are transformed into a Vogon spaceship. Then Arthur starts telling his ironic situation about himself above. Another example of verbal irony in the novel is observed in the definition of the electronic book device: “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”:
[…] [t]his device had about a hundred tiny flat press buttons and a screen about four inches square on which any one of a million “pages” could be summoned at a moment’s notice. It looked insanely complicated, and this was one of the reasons why the snug plastic cover it fitted into had the words “DON’T PANIC” printed on it in a large “FRIENDLY” letters […] (Adams, 2005: 26) [2nd emphasis in capital letter added].
On the other hand, when it comes to depict a situational irony which is located in the novel, the following citation stands out as one of the striking examples:
[…] The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book […]. The introduction begins like this: “ Space,” it says, “ is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to space […] ( Adams, 2005: 76).
Another example from the novel which includes situational ironic statement shows itself in the form of a conversation again which takes place between Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect at the moment when Arthur’s house is about to be demolished by Mr. Prosser in order to build a Bypass. Then Ford comes and convinces Mr. Prosser to guard the workers by lying down in front of yellow bulldozer on behalf of Arthur in order not to demolish Arthur’s home since Ford needs an urgent drink with Arthur to inform him 35 about impending danger. Therefore, Ford talks to Mr. Prosser in a humorous and ironic way. Thus, over this situation:
[…] Arthur remained very worried. “But can we trust him?” he said. “Myself I’d trust him to the end of the Earth,” said Ford. “Oh yes,” said Arthur, “and how far’s that?” “About twelve minutes away,” said Ford, “come on, I need a drink […] (Adams, 2005: 19).
Moreover, in this quotation, the comic and ironic conversations, between the characters, Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect, about their interstellar traveling in the spaceship of Vogons in the depths of space, are expressed. Then they start quarrelling with one another. Hence, ironic situations take place. Here, in order to describe his state of mind which is full of ironic cases, Arthur perplexes and starts talking about the space as follows:
[…] Arthur struggled to his feet and hugged himself apprehensively. Hideous alien shapes seemed to throng about him, the air was thick with musty smells which sidled into his lungs without identifying themselves, and a low irritating hum kept his brain from focusing […] is this really the interior of a flying saucer? […] I’m confused […] (Adams, 2005: 36-37).
Here is the other and the last ironic situation of a computer called “Deep Thought” in which it takes place about “The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, Universe and Everything”. Here the situation goes on as regards:
[…] “All I wanted to say,” bellowed the computer, “is that my circuits are now irrevocably committed to calculating the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything.” He paused and satisfied himself that he now had everyone’s attention, before continuing more quietly. “But the program will take me a “LITTLE” while to run.” […]. “How long?” he said. “SEVEN AND A HALF MILLION YEARS,” said Deep Thought […] (Adams, 2005: 173) [Capital letters added].
Moreover, Adams in order to focus upon the postmodern structural features of satire and laughter as the last ways of expressions used in the novel in tandem with the 36 critical approach, Bakhtinian term; “carnivalesque” has been preferred to be used in order to clarify satire and laughter in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. According to Hassan, in carnivalism, there is:
[…] “[t]rue feast of time” the feast of becoming, change and renewal, “human beings, then as now, discover” the peculiar logic of the ‘inside out’, out of the ‘turnabout’, … of numerous parodies and travesties, humiliations, profanations, coming crownings and uncrownings […] (171).
On the other hand, Bakhtin uses the term; “orchestration” in order to define “polyphony” within the context of carnivalesque narration. Here, Bakhtin depicts the basic points and determines this literary circumstance in his Dialogic Imagination as follows:
Bakhtin’s most famous borrowing from musical terminology is the “polyphonic” novel, but orchestration is the means for achieving it. Music is the metaphor from seeing to hearing […]. The possibilities of orchestration make any segment of text almost infinitely variable […] (431).
Similarly, Hassan points out “polyphony” by giving reference to Bakhtinian usage and states that “Carnivalization further means “ polyphony”, the centrifugal power of language, the “gay relativity” of things, perspectivism and performance, participation in the wild disorder of life, […]” (171). Hence from this perspective, according to McHale there are close resemblances between carnivalistic narrative and picaresque novel:
[…] [t]he typical plot of carnivalized narrative is that of a picaresque adventure-story in which the picaro seeks not social and economic advancement, or not only that, but answers to “ultimate questions”. This philosophical pursuit of ultimate questions leads the picaro to the very limits of his world, or even beyond them. He visits heaven, hell or other planets and engages in “threshold dialogues” with inhabitants of those worlds. Testing the limits of human experience, he experiments with extreme states of mind and body- hallucination, madness […] (172). 37
Thereby, by depending upon all these principles, Kropf explicates these similarities between carnivalesque narration and picaresque novel in Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:
One might reasonably argue that Adams’s works are SF picaresque novels. Like the picaro, the main characters wander, apparently at random, from one setting to another and, while remaining themselves untouched by their experiences, they expose their own absurdities and those of the societies they encounter (61).
Additionally, the essential similarity between picaresque novel and satire- laughter have been explained thorough the searchings of Picaro and his ideological investigation in order to find the meaning of life for betterment. Thus, this circumstance causes Picaro to come across various grotesque characters and events within the carnivalistic imagery. For this case, McHale asserts that
[…]. Yet the quest of the picaro is animated throughout by a visionary or Utopian hunger for a more perfect social order. Besides these topoi, which are essentially those of Menippean satire, carnivalized literature has also absorbed directly from popular carnival practices their characteristic grotesque imagery of human body […] (172).
Thus, according to Bakhtin, these carnivalistic specialties take place through many voices which he calls “heteroglossia”. He further explains this literary circumstance in accordance with its relations to polyphonic (orchestration) novel and dialogism:
[…] [a]uthorial speech, the speeches of narrators, inserted genres, the speech of characters are merely those fundamental compositional unities with whose help heteroglossia can enter the novel; each of them permits a multiplicity of social voices and a wide variety of their links and interrelationships […]. These distinctive links and interrelationships between utterances and languages, this movement of the theme through different languages and speech types, its dispersion into the rivulets and droplets of social heteroglossia, its dialogization- this is the basic distinguishing feature of the stylistics of the novel […] (263). 38
Furthermore, McHale clarifies the importance of these Bakhtinian terms and their relations to the improvement of laughter and Menippean satire with carnivalized topoi of literature as follows:
[…] [t]he connection has been argued most influentially, of course, by Mikhail Bakhtin. Bakhtin traced the polyphonic character of the novel back to its historical roots in popular carnival practices and the various verbal genres associated with carnival. In particular, carnival practices have been transmitted through the genre of Menippean satire, which initially developed in direct contact with popular carnival and which has been reconstituted at intervals throughout the course of literary history as the dialectical response to the consolidation of “official”, monological literary genres. “Carnivalized” genres such as Menippean satire are in this sense official literature’s dialectical antithesis and parodic double. Postmodernist fiction is the heir of Menippean satire and its most recent historical avatar […] (172).
Therefore, these satiric relations and the relations of laughter have also been observed throughout The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, thanks to the grotesque events and the characters and also through the reversing of original importance and value of SF text, all of which are turned up-side down intentionally with Adams’s manner of humorous telling in the novel. Hence, these reversals’ effects made by Adams have surprising and confusing attributions to SF literary understanding because through these contributions, it is possible to observe the events which are contrary to original serious handling of most SF texts. As Hutcheon explicates this situation under the explanation of postmodernism, “[…] [p]ostmodernism raises the uncomfortable question of the ideological power behind basic aesthetic issues such as that of representation: whose reality is being represented […]” (182). Moreover, the same situation is scrutinized by Kropf below:
[…] [t]he result is a good deal of humor as, time and again, the reader's normal expectations are disappointed. A more important effect of these reversals is that Adams’s novels become reflexive, commenting on the bankruptcy of the genre’s paradigms and raising questions about the nature and function of the genre as it is understood in terms of the reader's response (62). 39
Such examples below, about the grotesque-satirical element and about the case of laughter, are taken from the novel in order to show these relations under postmodern qualities:
[…] Ford Prefect’s satchel were quite interesting in fact and would have made any Earth physicist’s eyes pop out of his head, which is why he always concealed them by keeping a couple of dog-eared scripts for plays he pretended he was auditioning for stuffed in the top […] (Adams, 2005: 25-26).
Furthermore, McHale asserts that these mutual relations between SF and Postmodern fiction depend upon the point that each principle shares carnivalistic image and Menippean satiric topoi and through which they adapt these conditions to their own. As McHale further claims:
[…] [t]he repertoire of Menippean and carnivalesque topoi overlaps at certain points with the repertoires of the science fiction genres and thus with the postmodernist adaptations of science fiction […] these characteristic topoi of carnivalized literature are also characteristic topoi of postmodern fiction […] (173).
Additionally, for another grotesque image of satiric description, Adams’s comical, humorous alien character Zaphod Beeblebrox is scrutinized to show the description of grotesque satiric images used in Menippean satire in tandem with polyphonic novel. Thus, the following quotation shows that
[…] Zaphod Beeblebrox was roughly humanoid in appearance except for the head and third arm. His fair tousled hair stuck out in random directions, his blue eyes glinted with something completely unidentifiable and his chins were almost always unshaven […] (41).
Here, for this quotation, McHale shows the discrepancies between the characters of fictional world and the characters of real world by illuminating its affects, “[…] [t]he fictional world is accessible to our real world, but the real world is not accessible to the world of the fiction; in other words, we can conceive of the fictional characters and their world, but they cannot conceive of us and ours […]” (35). 40
On the other hand, as for the case of laughter with comical situation, it has been analyzed with this event in that Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect, as soon as they board on Vogon ship, Ford knows the impending threat and danger by expressing his feelings towards Arthur as follows:
[…] “You think we’re in trouble!” Outside the door were the clear sounds of marching footsteps […]. “Well,” said Ford, “if we’re lucky it’s just the Vogons come to throw us in to space.” “And if we’re unlucky?” “If we’re unlucky,” said Ford grimly, “the captain might be serious in his threat that he’s going to read us some of his poetry first” […] (Adams, 2005: 62-63).
This quotation above taken from the novel which contains laughter in itself is about the conversation between Arthur and Ford through which they discuss the impending troubles and possible cases which likely to occur in Vogon spaceship, incase they are detected by them.
Moreover, another comic event that highly includes laughter in itself in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is the definition of a drink called “Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster”:
[…] The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy also mentions alcohol. It says that the best drink in existence is the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. It says that the effect of drinking a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick […] (Adams, 2005: 20).
Similarly, in order to explicate the last comical event whose content has mostly been depended upon the circumstance of laughter in the novel which takes place within the conversation between Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect upon the event of the usage of an electronic book: “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”:
[…] Arthur grabbed the book and tried to stop his hands shaking. He pressed the entry for the relevant page. The screen flashed and swirled and resolved into a page of print. Arthur stared at it. “It doesn’t have any entry!” he burst out. 41
Ford looked over his shoulder. “Yes, it does,” he said, “down there, sea at the bottom of the screen, just above Eccentrica Gallumbits, the triple-breasted whore of Eroticon 6.” Arthur followed Ford’s finger, and saw where it was pointing. For a moment it still didn’t register, then his mind nearly blew up. “What Harmless”? Is that all it’s got to say? Harmless! One word! […]. “And what does it say now?” “Mostly Harmless,” admitted Ford with a slightly embarrassed cough […] (Adams, 2005: 61-62).
This comical case takes place again in the Vogon spaceship, when Arthur and Ford are trying to find a solution to save them from this area in which total control and power belong to Vogon race. Then they decide to consult upon the electronic book: “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy” and here Arthur comes across humorous comical event whilst he is trying to check this device and to turn it up whether it works or not and he sees the word which is the core point in this novel “Mostly Harmless”. Thus, this situation occurs which is full of laughter in itself and comical affairs.
To conclude, in this part, as it is scrutinized and observed all above, the analysis of science fictional elements, their clarifications within postmodern structural features such as parody, irony, satire and laughter have been studied and analyzed through the quotations taken from Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. 42
CHAPTER THREE
IDEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS AND THE ARGUMENTATION PART CONCERNING ABOUT THE ALTERNATIVE REALITY IN THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
In this part, the explanations about the authenticity and its terminological information have been given above in the theoretical part by depending on the studies of Adorno’s The Jargon of Authenticity. As it has been understood from this analysis in theoretical part, it has been claimed that the prominent thing in authenticity is the self- conscious individual activities and furthermore, in authentic self, there are many superior characteristics which indicate and define the term authenticity thoroughly. Here, the term authenticity has been adapted to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as follows:
[…] [c]uriously enough the dolphins had long known of the impending destruction of the planet Earth and had made many attempts to alert mankind to the danger, but most of their communications were misinterpreted as amusing attempts to punch football or whistle for tidbits, so they eventually gave up and left the Earth by their own means shortly before the Vogons arrived […]. In fact there was only one species on the planet more intelligent than dolphins, and they spent a lot of their time in behavioral research laboratories running after round inside wheels and conducting frighteningly elegant and subtle experiments on man. The fact that once again man completely misinterpreted this relationship was entirely according to these creatures’ plans […] (Adams, 2005: 156-157).
This event takes place in the clarification of the demolishing wreckage of the world in order to build a bypass by Vogons. Therefore this event is resulted in the extinctions of “Dolphins” as an inevitable outcome according to this humorous postmodern SF narration, but their behaviors to inform mankind for impending coming danger and these humorous affairs above are misinterpreted and misunderstood by humans. Thus, this humorous comic situation is pointed out with postmodern SF 43 content. Hence, here, in this quotation from the novel, it has been analyzed that authenticity and inauthenticity are clashed between one another because in the novel it is claimed that “dolphins” have their own capabilities and characteristics but on the other hand, through postmodern qualities this understanding is turned up-side down in a comical way which is expressed and considered as inauthentic and so the ideology of inauthenticity occurs.
Additionally, in the same quotation taken from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy above, the same understanding of authentic and inauthentic situations about the “mice” are scrutinized in the same way as in dolphins’ case. In both animals, there have been discrepancies between the characteristics of their own and their attributions which are put upon them through postmodern qualities. Moreover, in another quotation, the authentic and the inauthentic ideologies have so been stated:
“The Babel Fish,” said The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy quietly, “is small, yellow and leechlike and probably the oddest thing in the Universe. It feeds on brainwave energy received not from its own carrier but from those around it. It absorbs all unconscious mental frequencies from this brainwave energy to nourish itself with. It then excretes into the mind of its carrier a telepathic matrix formed by combining the conscious thought frequencies with nerve signals picked up from the speech centers of the brain which has supplied them. The practical upshot of all this is that if you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language. The speech patterns you actually hear decode the brainwave matrix which has been fed into your mind by your Babel fish […] (Adams, 2005: 58-59).
This quotation taken from the novel happens in the clarification of an electronic book: “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy” in odd manner of telling in that this “Babel Fish” has been given to Arthur by Ford in order to translate Vogons’ talking owing to the fact that it is able to translate all languages into chosen target language, as long as it is drawn closer near to ear. Hence, Arthur uses this animal as a translator in order to understand Vogons’ language.
Similarly, in this quotation above, the authentic characteristics of a fish are transferred into an inauthentic one so it transforms into a different ontology in another universe rather than in world’s itself. Thus, it is expressed in different ways through the 44 structural features of parody and laughter. For the same understanding as an ideology under cultural principle, McHale points out that “[…] [i]n other words, to “do” ontology, in this perspective is not necessarily to seek some grounding for our universe; it might just as appropriately involve describing other universes, including “possible” or “impossible” universes […]” (27).
If this ideology of authenticity and inauthenticity is handled like this through clashing characteristics of samples of SF texts in accordance within the postmodern characteristics, the issue of indeterminacy occurs because of these discrepant and incongruous humorous situations as analyzed in Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. For this understanding on postmodern indeterminacy under certain cultural ideologies as it is observed in authenticity and inauthenticity, Hassan points out that “[…] [a]s in scientific so in cultural thought, indeterminacy fills the space between the will to unmaking […]” (65-66).
On the other hand, other cultural elements are the ideologies of otherness and alienation. The detailed explanations of these principles, otherness and alienation, have been mentioned in theoretical part above. Therefore, here in this part, these ideological circumstances have been explained through the quotations taken from Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
The first example from the novel is scrutinized in order to show these ideologies of otherness and alienation as follows, “[…] Arthur said, don’t you understand, this is the first time I’ve actually stood on the surface of another planet … a whole alien world … ! Pity it’s such a dump though […]” (140). Here, from this quotation, it has been analyzed that Arthur feels alienated to the new planet called Magrethea. For Arthur, this planet is the other when it is compared to the Earth. Moreover, for other living beings in this planet, in other words, for aliens; Arthur is the other. Therefore, the ideology of otherness and the ideology of alienation are mutually scrutinized with one another throughout the novel. In other examples from the novel, these cases have further been analyzed as regards, “[…] [s]omewhere in the cosmos, along with all the planets inhabited by humanoids, reptiloids, fishoids, walking treeoids and superintelligent shades of color blue, there was also a planet entirely given over to ballpoint life forms […]” (Adams, 2005: 148). 45
In this passage, the variety of life forms in all different planets and their types have been explicated in the novel. Hence, these discrepancies and differences have been scrutinized as the core points in order to clarify the terms; “otherness” and “alienation”. Additionally, in the following citation in which the dialogue between Marvin and Arthur has been analyzed in order to present one of the cultural elements, alienation, in that
[…] “But that sunset! I’ve never seen anything like it in my wildest dreams… the two suns! It was like mountains of fire boiling into space.” “I’ve seen it,” said Marvin. “It’s rubbish.” “We only ever had the one sun at home,” preserved Arthur. “I came from a planet called Earth, you know.” […] (Adams, 2005: 149).
Consequently, these cultural elements of authenticity, alienation and otherness and their prominences as ideological aspects have been emphasized and observed in Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Furthermore in this part, as an argumentation, Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy has also been analyzed. The purpose here is to show the alternative realities occurring in the novel which show one to one correspondence with the content so that it will be pointed out in what way these alternative realities take place within the principles of postmodern qualities and SF texts. First of all, alternative realities have mostly been observed throughout SF based texts because of the correspondences of thematic content with structural postmodern features. Here, in these alternative realities, primary target is to make use of references in which variety of cultural, social and logocentric concepts are used so that the altered representations add new attributions and they perform as the new changing of facts and bases without losing their original tie with the references or logos they represent. Here by calling “change” it is meant that the new topoi of an alternative reality has its new qualifications and representations through which it is occurred with the intentional and structural features of postmodern ideology. 46
On the other hand, the second way of creating an alternative reality is to make an incredible effort to change the flow of the events through inexplicable or improbable cases and their humorous inevitable outcomes with the combination of postmodern technique and SF content.
Moreover, these alternative realities are produced for the purpose of deconstruction so that new postmodern qualifications and contributions are able to be illuminated. Similarly, in Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, these alternative realities have been observed and produced by the author in order to show and describe humorous parodic postmodern SF references which have been put side by side with the references of universal logos. Among them, in the novel, as it has been observed through the conversation between Ford and Arthur in that
[…] “Oh.” Ford carried on humming. “This is terrific,” Arthur thought to himself, “Nelson’s Column has gone, McDonald’s has gone, all that is me and the words Mostly Harmless. Any second now all that will be left is Mostly Harmless. And yesterday the planet seemed to be going so well” […] (Adams, 2005: 75).
This situation takes place after the destruction of earth by Vogons and for this situation, Arthur shares his thoughts with Ford by mentioning universally known logo and its absence hereafter then he goes on expressing his feelings for this circumstance. Therefore this situation creates an alternative reality through the combination of postmodern qualities with the content of SF text. Furthermore in another citation, the depiction of Ford’s personal items in his bag, under the universal logo again, is clarified as an alternative reality, “[…] [i]n Ford’s satchel were a few ballpoints, a notepad and a largish bath towel from “Marks and Spencer” […]” (Adams, 2005: 26).
On the other hand as it is explained above, the second way of creating an alternative reality takes place through the postmodern handling of inexplicable narration and its adaptation to SF texts, in other words this alternative reality occurs thanks to the combination SF elements with artistic postmodern narrations. In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, there are also such examples, among them there is such an important issue which is about the usage of “The Infinite Improbability Drive”. Its 47 description as a technological device is expressed and defined as follows, “[…] The Infinite Improbability Drive is a wonderful new method of crossing vast interstellar distances in a mere nothingth of a second, without all that tedious mucking about the hyperspace […]” (Adams, 2005: 86). Therefore, this device is handled as an alternative reality for a technological advancement in future. As Kropf stresses, “[…] SF, by definition, will always extrapolate some kind of reasonably believable future […]” (64). In the novel, this situation about the usage of “The Infinite Improbability Drive” is illuminated with this quotation as follows:
[…] [t]he deadly missile attack shortly to be launched by an ancient automatic defense system will result merely in the breakage of three coffee cups and a mouse cage, the bruising of somebody’s upper arm and the untimely creation and sudden demise of a bowl of petunias and an innocent sperm whale […] (Adams, 2005: 122).
In this quotation above, this circumstance has been created humorously, while all the characters, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford Prefect, Arthur Dent, Trillian and Marvin are on board in the spaceship called “Heart of Gold”, then they try to land on a planet called Magrethea but as a defense system the planet shows resistance and attacks by sending rockets to destroy the spaceship and in this situation Arthur accidentally pushes the button of “The Infinite Improbability Drive” and crisis is solved successfully. Hence, by depending upon the same scope of understanding, Kropf explicates this situation:
[…] After opening the novels with the apparent destruction of Earth, Adams establishes his characters in a setting aboard the Heart of Gold, a ship propelled by the infinite improbability drive, capable of taking the travelers to any time or place they care to visit. Within the improbability field created by the drive, anything, no matter how outrageously unlikely, may occur […]. In Hitchhiker’s Guide, the first novel in the series, the ship is attacked by two thermonuclear missiles. The characters escape by turning on the improbability drive, turning the missiles into a bowl of petunias and a sperm whale which plunge to the surface of the planet below […] (67).
As for the same circumstance above, Kropf further states that “[…] [t]he works provide some sort of extrapolation from the present state of science or technology and that that altered environment conditions the terms of the conflict […]” (64). 48
Furthermore, another alternative reality which has been scrutinized throughout the novel as a core of the argument is “The Answer to Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe and Everything” and it is analyzed by postmodernist comical depiction in SF context:
[…] “Tell us!” “Alright,” said Deep Thought. “The Answer of the Great Question…” “Yes …!” “Of Life, the Universe and Everything …” said Deep Thought. “Yes …!” “Is …” said Deep Thought, and paused. “Yes …!” “Is …” “Yes … !!! …?” “Forty-Two,” said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm […] (Adams, 2005: 180-181).
Additionally, after the explanation of Deep Thought’s “The Answer to The Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe and Everything” as 42 (forty two) here, in the following situation, another alternative reality takes place:
[…] “I speak of none but the computer that is to come after me,” intoned Deep Thought, his voice regaining its accustomed declamatory tones. “A computer whose merest operational parameters I am not worthy to calculate and yet I will design it for you. A computer that can calculate the Question to the Ultimate Answer, a computer of such infinite and subtle complexity that organic life itself shall form part of its operational matrix. And you yourselves shall take on new forms and go down into the computer to navigate its ten million-year program! Yes! I shall design this computer for you. And I shall name it also unto you. And it shall be called … The Earth.” […] (Adams, 2005: 183-184).
Therefore, it is stated that the “Earth” is the alternative reality and at the same time it is considered as the more developed version of a computer; “Deep Thought”. Kropf, on the other hand, in his essay asserts this circumstance of an alternative reality and defines it as an “ideational closure”: 49
[…] [i]deational closure provide the reader with a sense of “how it all turns out” where it refers to the process of social, scientific, and technological change we see occurring in the course of our everyday lives, and the work will provide a reasonably believable answer to the question of where we are headed […] (64).
Through these explanations and examples from alternative reality, Adams’s purpose has been clarified. His ultimate aim is to turn the ordinary understanding of ideology and the content/form of original SF texts up-side down in other words, to deconstruct these elements by creating such alternative realities because Adams’s idea of inconclusive substratum is the main scope of his deconstruction whose contents depend neither on rules nor on dictations. On the contrary, thanks to these principles; any improbable, inevitable and inexplicable SF events take place and hence these situations illuminate astonishing facts changing the understanding of original SF base. Here such case is stressed by Kropf:
[…] Adams’s novels, however, are a chronicle of aborted endings and inconclusive conclusions in the course of which the author does everything possible to outrage verisimilitude. In a setting like this, of course, absolutely anything can happen, and the supposedly orderly march of fictional events as well as our expectations about reasonable extrapolation and ideational closures imply evaporate […] (67).
Consequently, here as far as it is concerned from these quotations as a whole above, Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy depicts its alternative realities and describes them in such a logical but at the same time in humorous concepts that the flow of the events take their spontaneous places and at the same time, they are formed in such a planned and fictional way with postmodern humorous affinities in SF text that there arises new version of parodic SF as a literary genre under postmodernist conceptualization. Although they seem as if they show the qualities which look contrary to the original SF content and its literary principles whose basics are serious in form and so do in its gatherings, here, through these alternative realities, this humorous postmodern SF text deconstructs the traditional concepts and norms. 50
Hence, they are implemented into all particles of these unique changes with its thematic, stylistic and structural facets whose features are adapted to the novel by Adams thoroughly. Moreover, thanks to these literary qualities Adams achieves his intentional purposes which contribute to the development of postmodernist way of parodic SF text as a literary genre. 51
CONCLUSION
This study has attempted to illuminate a literary outcome analyzing that Douglas Adams’s novel, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, is a postmodern SF novel in terms of the qualities and particular specialties of its own. Throughout the novel, use of postmodern scientific parody and other postmodern structural features whose characteristics based upon postmodern literary ways of expressions, under general understanding, have been analyzed as a main purpose in this study. Therefore the scope of this study has been focused on these aspects of the novel. Furthermore, the overall principles used in this study show that throughout the novel, it has been possible to observe and scrutinize such postmodern SF qualities in tandem with one another in terms of postmodern aspects of literary expressions as parody, satire, irony, laughter and other comical-humorous affairs.
Throughout this study, which is consisted of three parts and their sections, variety of postmodern qualities and the characteristics of SF as genre have been described and analyzed. Furthermore, these deconstructed postmodern principles have also been explained with their relations to SF qualities. Background information and historical-developmental procedures and transformations of SF as a genre have been analyzed and explicated. Moreover, the special elements, different categories and technological characteristics of SF have been introduced within the contributions of SF theoreticians. Then, the critical approach of this study as a main scope and purpose has been introduced as Postmodernism. Here, the characteristics of postmodernism with its multiple contents have been analyzed through the techniques and special qualities that it contains as a main critical approach. These characteristic features of postmodernism have further been scrutinized with theoretical doctrines of many postmodern critics whose works have been pioneered in this study.
Among these postmodern qualities, postmodern ontological features have been discussed with their unifications to SF text in terms of the mutual relations between one 52 another so that these ontological features are adapted to the quotations taken from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy under one of the main scopes of this study. Moreover, from this perspective, in order to apply these ontological features to SF content, with their theoretical explanations, two concepts have been mentioned; first is the issue of doubleness and the second one is the occurrence of paradigm shift.
Additionally, as it has been described that the features of postmodernism including stylistic, thematic and structural ones have been mentioned but among them primary concern have mostly been depended upon structural features because it has included such ways of expressions as parody, irony, satire, laughter and other comical elements which have been the core of the argument in shaping the purposes of this thesis.
During an analysis procession, as a primary purpose, the postmodern literary ways of expressions especially the structural features have been focused in order to analyze The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in accordance with the elements and the scrutiny of SF.
To sum up, as a whole, in the analysis of the novel, science fictional elements from robots to technological advancements and further, from spaceships to the issue of time traveling, have been scrutinized as the main contents of SF text. Thus, by depending upon this, the terminological application and the assistance of parody and irony have been used whose unifications and attributions as postmodern literary ways of expressions have also been described and analyzed throughout the novel. Furthermore, from this perspective, it has also been scrutinized that the functions of parody and irony have been studied with their terminological clarifications thanks to the quotations taken from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Additionally, Douglas Adams’s humorous manner of telling has been analyzed and observed in this study. On the other hand, in order to describe other postmodern literary ways of expressions such as satire and laughter, Bakhtinian terminologies including “carnivalism, orchestration and polyphony” have been scrutinized for humorous and comic situations quoted from the novel. 53
Therefore, these postmodern ways of expressions have been studied and analyzed in this study as a crucial scope and furthermore these postmodern qualities have been adapted to SF specialties as literary aspects indicating that Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy shares the characteristics of postmodern SF text whose qualities correspond to the same deconstructed literary principles.
Lastly, chosen and defined cultural elements as the ideologies of “authenticity, alienation and otherness” have been analyzed within SF postmodern qualities whose contents have also been united with one another through the quotations taken from the novel. Similarly, the concepts of an alternative reality have further been scrutinized in this part in that there have been variety of clarifications whose outcomes have also been analyzed with their theoretical explanations which constitute an alternative reality. Therefore, as a result of this study, it is observed that the prominent postmodern principles have created alternative realities to contribute to Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as a postmodern- parodic- SF text. 54
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C.V.
Name and Surname : Çelik Ekmekçi Mother’s Name : Türkan Father’s Name : Aydın Birth of Place and Date : Denizli / 18.06.1985 B.A. : Yaşar University Faculty of Science and Letters Department of English Language and Literature
Graduation Date : 2009
M.A. : Pamukkale University Social Sciences Institution Western Languages and Literatures Department of English Language and Literature
M.A. : Universidad de Huelva Facultad de Humanidades Departimento de Filologia Inglesa (During The Reading Period of Dissertation)